Page 111 of Under Her

“So, she hated me for something I said that I don’t even remember saying. That’s not exactly fair. And it doesn’t excuse what she’s done to me and my family’s company.”

“You’re right; it wouldn’t be fair. If she’d actually done any of those things that you accused her of.”

“I saw the email.”

“And I saw her devastation last night. Like I did all those years ago when you stood by and let a bunch of your frat buddies call her fat at a party. You did nothing, and then you went upstairs and screwed one of her best friends. But I’m guessing you don’t remember that either.”

I close my eyes and force my mind back.

“Hannah,” I say, opening my eyes.

“Hannah,” she echoes. “So, you do remember.”

“But how was I to know? I didn’t think Morgan gave a shit about me. I didn’t know I was hurting her back then. But she knew exactly what she was doing when she went to Coveted Lingerie with her idea—our idea.”

“You know, Morgan wasn’t going to tell me about what had happened with you and Hannah because she didn’t want to cause problems between me and our so-called friend. But I know Morgan, and I knew something was wrong. It took me weeks to coax it out of her.”

“I’m sorry about the thing with Hannah. But that was then, and this is now. She sold us out.”

“Do you really believe that she would go behind your back like that?”

“I spoke to the supplier. I saw the—”

“Email. Yeah, you said. But you know what your problem is, Wilder? What your problem has always been when it comes to Morgan? You never saw her all those years ago. And you’re still not seeing her now.”

She gets up from the chair and walks toward my office door.

She pulls it open and then stops, turning back to me. “Don’t make the same mistake again with her. Because I promise you, you will regret it.”

I’m standing on the steps of Morgan’s building, my finger hovering over the buzzer to her apartment.

It’s been a day since Joely came barging into my office, giving me a piece of her mind.

And I’ve done a lot of thinking since then. In fact, it’s all I’ve thought about, and the conclusion I’ve come to is…there’s no way Morgan would have done this to me.

I know her.

And Joely was wrong when she said I didn’t see Morgan. I do. I always did.

I was just an immature kid back then. I thought I knew who I was and what I wanted out of life. I accepted what Morgan had told me at face value instead of pushing her for answers.

Because, if I had done that, then we wouldn’t have wasted the last thirteen years by not being together.

But, if Morgan had been more open with me, called me out on my dickish behavior, then I would have had to listen.

But she didn’t. And here we are.

We’re both to blame for the past. But this, right now…this is all me.

I didn’t listen to her when she told me this wasn’t her doing. I should have heard her and trusted her because she’d never given me a reason not to.

I should have known she wouldn’t have done this.

We might have had our difficulties in the past. But one thing she never was, was cruel.

Unlike me.

I take a deep breath, ready to push the buzzer, when a window opens to my left, and the wrinkled, leathery face of an old lady stares back at me.